1883
Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
In 1883 Keeler went abroad for a year to study at Heidelberg under G. H. Quincke.
1884
Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany
In 1884 Keeler studied at the University of Berlin under H. L. F. von Helmholtz.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
In 1877 Keeler enrolled as a freshman at the newly opened Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1881.
1898
Royal Astronomical Society, London, England
Keeler was elected a fellow and foreign associate of the Royal Astronomical Society of London in 1898.
1900
National Academy of Sciences, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
In 1900 Keeler was elected to membership of the National Academy of Sciences.
1900
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, California, United States
In 1900 Keeler became a president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
1898
In 1898 Keeler was awarded the Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his applications of spectroscopy to astronomy.
1899
Keeler received the Henry Draper medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1899.
1883
Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
In 1883 Keeler went abroad for a year to study at Heidelberg under G. H. Quincke.
1884
Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany
In 1884 Keeler studied at the University of Berlin under H. L. F. von Helmholtz.
1898
Royal Astronomical Society, London, England
Keeler was elected a fellow and foreign associate of the Royal Astronomical Society of London in 1898.
1898
In 1898 Keeler was awarded the Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his applications of spectroscopy to astronomy.
1899
Keeler received the Henry Draper medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1899.
1900
National Academy of Sciences, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
In 1900 Keeler was elected to membership of the National Academy of Sciences.
1900
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, California, United States
In 1900 Keeler became a president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
In 1877 Keeler enrolled as a freshman at the newly opened Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1881.
A drawing of Keeler.
A portrait of Keeler.
https://www.amazon.com/earthquakes-California-Astronomical-Pacific-Publications/dp/B0008BYBPG/?tag=2022091-20
1890
https://www.amazon.com/Photographs-Nebulae-Clusters-Crossley-Reflector/dp/1290317356/?tag=2022091-20
1908
Astronomer astrophysicist scientist
James Edward Keeler was born on September 10, 1857, in La Salle, Illinois, United States. His father was William F. Keeler, who served as a paymaster in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War; his mother, Anna Dutton, was the daughter of Henry Dutton, onetime governor of Connecticut.
After 1869 the family moved to Mayport, Florida; in this small settlement a few miles east of Jacksonville, Keeler helped his father and older brother to build the house they lived in.
Keeler attended public schools in La Salle until 1869, when the family moved to Mayport, Florida. He had no formal secondary education. At age eighteen, Keeler made his own telescope. This was the beginning of his “Mayport Astronomical Observatory”; other equipment included a quadrant, chronometer, and meridian circle - all homemade.
Providentially, Charles H. Rockwell, of Tarrytown, New York, learned of Keeler’s interest in astronomy and made it possible for him - by then twenty years old - to enroll as a freshman at the newly opened Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Keeler earned part of his expenses there as assistant to Charles S. Hastings, professor of physics, and with him took part in the U.S. Naval Observatory expedition to Central City, Colorado, to observe the solar eclipse of July 29, 1878. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1881.
In 1883 Keeler went abroad for a year to study at Heidelberg under G. H. Quincke and at the University of Berlin under H. L. F. von Helmholtz.
In June 1881, Keeler went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as assistant to Samuel P. Langley, who was then director of the Allegheny Observatory. Keeler arrived in July 1881, just in time to take part in the expedition to Mount Whitney, California, when Langley’s new bolometer was used to measure the infrared radiation of the sun.
In 1883 Keeler went to Germany for a year. He then returned to Allegheny, to remain until 1886, when he became the first professional astronomer to reside on Mount Hamilton, where the Lick Observatory was under construction; his main job was to set up a time service for distribution from there to various commercial interests.
When the University of California took formal possession of Lick in 1888, Keeler remained, with the title of astronomer. Here it was that he used the thirty-six-inch refracting telescope and a spectroscope incorporating one of Henry A. Rowland’s concave gratings to measure (1890) the wavelengths of the bright lines in nebular spectra. His accuracy was sufficient to show that - like stars - gaseous nebulae have measurable motions toward or away from the earth. The precision of these measurements also helped to show that some of the wavelengths did not correspond to any atomic transitions known to occur on earth; this led to Keeler’s involvement in the early stages of the “nebulium” controversy, which was finally resolved by Ira S. Bowen in 1927.
In 1891 he left Lick for seven years, having been appointed successor to Langley as director of the Allegheny observatory. Langley had become secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. During this period of his life Keeler designed a spectrograph - differing from a spectroscope in that spectral lines are recorded photographically rather than being located by eye - and with it obtained (1895) the classic proof of James Clerk Maxwell’s theoretical prediction that the rings of Saturn are meteoritic in nature.
Returning to Lick in 1898 to succeed Edward S. Holden as director, Keeler was able to put into use the thirty-six-inch Crossley reflecting telescope, which had defied earlier astronomers (it was difficult to operate because of an unusual mounting, designed, furthermore, for its original location in England). With the Crossley, Keeler took a series of photographs that revealed how greatly spiral nebulae - later identified as exterior galaxies - outnumbered all the other hazy objects detectable in the sky. He was awaiting the completion of a slitless spectrograph he had designed for use with this telescope when he had a heart attack and died. is ashes were interred in a crypt at the base of the 31-inch Keeler Memorial telescope at the Allegheny Observatory.
James Edward Keeler went down in history as one of the leading American astrophysicists of the 19th century. He is best remembered today for his spectroscopic proof that the rings of Saturn are composed of small particles moving independently, and for his discovery of the abundance of spirals among the nebulae.
Keeler was granted an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of California in 1893. In 1898 he was awarded the Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his applications of spectroscopy to astronomy. On the same basis he received the Henry Draper medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1899.
Keeler was elected a fellow and foreign associate of the Royal Astronomical Society of London in 1898. In 1900 he was elected to membership of the National Academy of Sciences, and also became a president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
In June 1891, Keeler married Cora Slocomb Matthews, the niece of the president of the Lick board of trustees. The couple had a son and a daughter.
